A sliding closure of this type is described in publication EP 0 819 488 B1. It is preferably used for opening and closing the spout opening of converters. During casting operation its refractory parts are subjected to a high degree of wear. It is therefore necessary to change them relatively frequently. However, one can only make the change by dismantling the sliding closure. Therefore the productivity of the facility is compromised due to the resulting shutdown times. This is particularly the case when using the sliding closure in converters because here, as experience has shown, the base plate wears out quickly, and so one needs to change it relatively often, and in any is case more frequently than the other refractory parts.
The object forming the basis of the invention is to avoid these disadvantages and to produce a sliding closure of the type specified at the start and which enables rapid and convenient exchange of the refractory parts particularly prone to wear, without it being necessary to interrupt the casting operation for this purpose.